


Tuning In

by gamble_demon



Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Alternate Universe - Two Couriers, Best Friends, Canon-Typical Violence, Found Family, Gen, Old World Blues DLC, Original Character(s), Surrogate Siblings, Wasteland Wanderers Zine, pre-dlc, these two mailmen are BEST FRIENDS and there's NOTHING you can do about it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-07-02 14:49:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15798762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gamble_demon/pseuds/gamble_demon
Summary: A pair of couriers follow a particularly mysterious broadcast





	Tuning In

**Author's Note:**

> This short story was written for the [2018 Wasteland Wanderers Zine,](https://wastelandwandererszine.tumblr.com/) a really cool fanzine project still in development. Keep an eye out for its finished form in the near future!
> 
> It takes place in an AU where, due to some wacky circumstances, there's two acting Courier Sixes, and they travel together. Thanks for taking a peek!

“Yo, Knox, turn up the radio.”

Sidewinder stopped to kick her boots against the rusted iron of the railroad track, scraping off weeks-old dirt and hours-old blood. A faint jazzy jingle warbled from behind her, trumpet blares mingling with the buzz and whir of a hovering eyebot. She could feel the pair of hesitant blue eyes on her back, careful and kind.

“I thought you said it was givin’ you a headache,” Knoxton said.

Sidewinder laughed, once . “Oh yeah, no, it is,” She said, rubbing her palm against the dull ache behind her eye. “But I am  _ digging _ that brass section.” She turned, saw her friend—her  _ best  _ friend, she mentally corrected, still reeling at the thought of even having one of those—standing awkwardly in her Pip-Boy light, fingers lingering over the volume knob of his own perpetual wrist companion. The eyebot, ED-E or whatever he was calling it, drifted around his head, its usual orbit. Sidewinder flashed them both a lopsided grin. “Besides, we keep those tunes pumpin’, maybe it’ll help us pinpoint these damn coordinates a little better. Y’know, louder music, better signal. That sort of thing.”

Knoxton furrowed his brow thoughtfully for a moment, before nodding sagely. “Right, right! That sort of thing.” He fiddled with his Pip-Boy, the lethargic jazz washing over them as it grew louder.

They’d been tracking the broadcast for a few days now, eager to answer the mysterious invitation beamed into both of their Pip-Boys. Sure, Sidewinder still couldn’t shake the nightmares and occasional auditory hallucinations from her last strange radio signal-related outing, but this time she had far more faith in the situation. Besides, at least whatever the hell a “Science Fiction Feature” was sounded  _ fun. _

The signal was leading them south, down past the mountains. And If the marker on her Pip-Boy map was right, they didn’t have much further to go. Sidewinder squinted at her tiny wrist screen and looked up, could spy a nearing fiery glow along the midnight horizon—plumes of smoke billowing in the burn and blaze of a dying town. Nipton. She snorted.  _ Now there’s a place I haven’t been through in a while _ . Sidewinder glanced over at Knoxton, nodding her head towards the nearing city limits.

“Looks like we’re gonna have to cut through Nipton to get to our little rendezvous point,” she said. “Hopefully the ‘ol Crucifixion Crew will let us pass without any trouble.”

Through the thicket of his beard she saw Knoxton’s lip twitch upward into an odd little half-smile. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry too much about that, Sidewinder,” he replied quietly, humming along with the radio. She looked him over for several long moments.

“…Okay?”

They’d been traveling companions for a few months now, but Sidewinder was still warming up to the whole “living and journeying with another human being” thing. She was used to traveling with Rex, the perfect enabler for her urge to barge straight into trouble. She didn’t need to go over plans with him, or carefully split loot they’d found. But with Knoxton? She couldn’t just  _ do;  _ there were steps, there had to be discussion, compromise. Accommodations had to made for a “we” that was rapidly enveloping more and more of Sidewinder’s “I”-heavy agenda. He kept her in check, balanced her out. Knoxton was a mess of quirks, cheerful and chatty, far from the smartest man alive, but the more Sidewinder stopped to think about it (when was that something she ever actually  _ wanted  _ to do?), she had to admit that that just made her enjoy being around him all the more. Having someone to not just talk  _ to,  _ but talk  _ with?  _ It was… nice. Contributing much to the conversation was never one of Rex’s strong suits, after all. 

_ God, where is that dog of mine anyway?  _ Sidewinder whistled sharply, fully aware there was maybe a 60% chance it would do any good. Rex had charged off earlier, chasing Radscorpions, running into the night even as Sidewinder hollered after him. Typical. He always sniffed his way back to her, at least. She wasn’t too worried.

With Rex currently MIA, though, Sidewinder had all the more appreciation for Knoxton’s steadfast presence. As she slid down the rocky hills into Nipton, he came down with her, a warm body close at hand as the scent of smoke and rot started to slither into her nose and a cold sense of dread started grabbing her tight. She entered the outer edge of town and passed the abandoned storefronts slowly, her tiny, topheavy form casting warped shadows upon them in the orange light of a dozen still-burning trash fires.

Nipton had changed since Sidewinder had been here last. She was still stumbling from the head trauma when she’d first visited, first saw all the men in their bull-patterned armor milling about the fire and ruin. She’d talked to the guy in charge, told him she thought his fox hat was cool, saw his twisted logic filter through her bullet-scrambled brain and decided what he’d done had been perfectly reasonable. She’d left the Legion to their own devices, staggered off into a desert full of other adventures, and promptly tossed the memory of Nipton into the farthest wastes of her mind.

Now, though, the city stood quiet, not a single Legion scout along the Nipton Hall steps, just bodies on crosses and smoke in the sky. “Where the hell is everybody?” Sidewinder remarked. “I mean, yeah, the townsfolk are all dead, I know  _ that _ , but where’s all the Legion guys? There were a shitload of ‘em last time I was here.” She moved slow, shining her Pip-Boy light around, watching for movement.

“I told you, Sidewinder! You don’t gotta worry about them one bit,” Knoxton drawled. She glanced at him, yelped at how close he was. He’d moved silently behind her, was examining his submachine gun, polishing the side of it with his sleeve. He didn’t look up at her. “They’re all dead!”

“What?” Sidewinder saw something as she spoke, a dark mass atop a rubble piles. She stepped forward and shone her light on it, promptly rocketing backwards as she gazed upon the dead Legion soldier. “Whoa,  _ hello!”  _ She coughed, leaning to rest her hands on her knees, the body’s stench making her migraine throb. She looked over at Knoxton, still wheezing a little. “When the hell did this happen?”

“Oh, when I came through and shot ‘em all. It was a while back. Didn’t need to let ‘em talk, I could tell they were nothin’ but trouble. Did everyone a favor, if you ask me,” he said with a smile and a tilt of his hat. ED-E floated over his shoulder and beeped merrily, an echo of his demeanor. He moved to be next to Sidewinder, expression melting into gentle concern. “You alright? Need a hand?”

“No, yeah, I’m fine. It’s just–” Sidewinder spotted the bullet hole clean through the Legionnaire's skull, saw the long-dried blood pooled behind him. She thought about the Fort, about Caesar’s smug, shitty face and his smug, shitty words. Her jaw clenched tight. She thought about the live bomb right under his feet, the Securitrons she’d rigged to emerge whenever the moment finally called. She exhaled sharply as her tightened teeth curled into a sneering grin, and she stood back upright. “Yeah, nevermind. That was probably a good call, Knoxton.”

“I know.”

Sidewinder looked at him and chortled, clapping him once on the shoulder. “Let’s just keep moving.” She glanced at her wrist. “The source is close. Just gotta get through town and head south a little. C’mon!”

They moved through Nipton quickly, joyful jazz radio ringing hollow down empty roadways. Sidewinder jogged, eager to leave this newfound ghost town behind, but as the homes and fires started to thin out she slowed to a stop, hearing something out beyond civilization.

It sounded like barking.

“Rex?” She called. “Buddy, that you?” Knoxton stopped, following her gaze. There was a definite baying coming from the desert beyond, that robust bark Sidewinder knew and loved, but there was something else, too—something she only noticed as it grew louder, closer, and suddenly ED-E’s combat fanfare was blasting in her ear.

Into the Nipton outskirts the bark scorpions came, nearly a half dozen, big and skittering fast. And there, hot on the heels of them all, as Knoxton’s eyebot set upon the bugs with its laser blasts, was a certain unruly cyberdog, tail wagging as he snapped and snarled. 

Sidewinder groaned into her hand. “Aw, Rex…” She started to reach for her back, tried to grapple the heavy Tesla Cannon strapped there and slide it around, but Knoxton was already on the move. He leapt past her, chuckling as he fired off a round of SMG shots with an elegant sweep of his arm.

“He just brought us a lil company, that’s all! Must’a thought we were lonely! Ain’t that right, boy? Were you bein’ thoughtful?” He said in between bouts of gunfire. Wet sounds erupted from the scorpions as his bullets shredded their exoskeletons, and Rex paused to growl at him. Ducking past laser beams and scorpion tails, Sidewinder’s dog ran over to her, leaving Knoxton’s face to fall. “Oh, I’m sorry. Did I say somethin’ wrong?”

Sidewinder rolled her eyes and smirked as she gave up trying to get her cannon, fumbling in her pockets and shoving on a pair of spiked knuckles instead. She bent down, scratched where Rex’s smooth brain chassis met fur, and shot Knoxton a single finger-gun as she darted past him into the fray. “He doesn’t like your hat.”

She ran at the closest bark scorpion, one of two still standing, and swung her fist hard. It connected, smashing the overgrown pest’s left pincher off in a flurry of bug gunk. Sidewinder whooped, spinning to avoid its swinging, stinging tail, and pulled her leg back, aiming for the head. With a forceful kick she met her mark, knocking her boot right into the scorpion’s eyes, sending it flying back a good few inches. It hit the ground with a rough thud and singular jerk of its battered body, before ceasing to move entirely. She pumped her fist triumphantly and turned, just in time to see Knoxton pouring bullets into the last of the arthropod army, finishing it off and leaving only radscorpion mush behind.

ED-E beeped a little victory tune, floating back to its trajectory around Knoxton’s head. Sidewinder folded her arms, wincing a little as the spiked knuckles dug into her jacket. “Well, gang,  think we were very productive here,” she said. Rex barked at her and wagged his tail. Sidewinder stuck her tongue out at him. “Oh, yes, you did very good, bud. You brought us so many new friends and you bit every single one of them! I love you.” She glanced over at Knoxton, ready to praise his sharpshooter skills, and found him staring off into space. “Yo, Knox, what’s up? More scorpions?”

He blinked, coming back to Earth, and looked at her. “No, not that. It’s just…” Knoxton pointed south. “You see that?”

Sidewinder looked where he pointed, and saw it immediately: a massive screen tucked past the hills and sparse Mojave shrubbery, lit up like the Strip with a pale blue glow. She stared at it, headache pulsing in her widening eyes, and smiled slowly. “Yeah,” she replied. “Guess we got ourselves a show to catch.”

The two couriers and their entourage followed the light like enraptured moths. The broadcast on Knoxton’s Pip-Boy was losing static with every step, growing crisper and clearer as they curved east and went up a hill, passing a long faded sign pointing the way to the Mojave Drive-In. Sidewinder lead the pack, running to the hilltop to survey what they’d discovered, and was entirely unprepared for what she found.

There, nestled among the graveyard of long-abandoned cars, was… well,  _ something.  _ Sidewinder thought it was a large robot at first, something sentient, hurt; it was twitching where it laid caught in the ground, all monstrous metal and flailing appendages. But no, no, it wasn’t alive, just downed machinery. She could see now the light beaming from its side, saw it was projecting the blue glow they’d been chasing, was sitting, quite literally, under the watchful gaze of the image flickering on the screen: a single eye looking around with quick, jerky movements, frantic and fearful.

She glanced down at her Pip-Boy and checked the time. Just about midnight. 

Jazz filled her ears as Knoxton padded up next to her, breathing in sharply as he took in the scene. “What the hell is that?” he mumbled. He kept looking between the crashed object and the screen, frowning.

Sidewinder made a quick internal decision _.  _ “No clue, but I’m gonna go check it out.” And with that, she was already on the move, sliding down the hill with Rex in tow. She heard ED-E make a string of nervous-sounding beeps, as Knoxton stammered and whined.

“S-sidewinder! Be _ careful! _ You don’t know what that is! It–It might be full of aliens or somethin’! It might shoot ya’ full of lasers if ya get too close!” he cried.

She stopped at the bottom of the hill and turned to look up at him. Knoxton was bathed in blue light, face warped with worry meant solely for her _._ Sidewinder leaned against a ravaged Corvega shell, chomping her lip and feeling an aching, instant urge to make him feel better. _Cuz that’s what families are supposed to do, right?_ She thought, _Take care of each other?_ Fighting back the immediate desire to overthink calling Knoxton _family_ the only way she knew how, she flexed at him flamboyantly. 

“Eh, I could beat up an alien,” she said. “A laser, too. Never tried, but I bet I could.”

She saw Knoxton’s fear waver, heard a whooping laugh force its way out of him, and grinned. He looked back at her with a nervous smile. “I bet you could, too.” He adjusted his hat and gaped up at the humongous eye quivering before them, his gaze disappearing behind the glare of his glasses. “God, that is really somethin’ else. I’m gonna go check it out while you go snoopin’. Be safe, alright? Don’t do anything too…y’know, dangerous?”

“Absolutely no promises,” she said, inching her way towards the crash site.

“Sidewinder!”

“Kidding, I’m kidding!” Sidewinder gave him an earnest salute. “I’ll be careful. Besides, I don’t think it’s gonna hurt us. We’re  _ invited guests,  _ y’know?”

Rex followed as she crept towards the mass of metal, panting and snuffling. Sidewinder paused, kneeling to gently bop him on the snout. “Oh, no. I’m gonna need you to stay put, okay, dude?” she said. He licked her fingers and blinked at her with large, bright eyes. She looked him over, all his mechanical bits, his shiny new brain in its jar. She sighed a laugh. “No, don’t get cute with me! It might not be safe.” She stood up, held out a hand. “Stay.” Rex barked at her. She pointed at him. “ _ Rex _ .”

Finally, he sat down roughly, tail waving a semicircle into the dirt. Sidewinder put her hands on her hips. “There we go!” She checked back a few times as she closed the gap between her and the mass of metal, but still Rex stayed, wiggling in place only a little. She smiled to herself. He was a good boy.

_ Alright, let’s see what we got here,  _ she thought as she came up next to the quivering contraption. She rubbed her still aching head as she examined it, remembering suddenly the pictures of old satellites she’d seen while ransacking the REPCONN building.  _ So… you’re space junk. Interesting.  _ She knelt to where the satellite was wedged into the asphalt, saw the faded paint job on its side, a flag of some sorts. Familiar, but not familiar enough for her muddled brain. The wreckage wavered, spasming and sparking and radiating an energy she couldn’t quite place, and Sidewinder stood back up to watch, entranced.  _ Now, why’d you want  _ us  _ here? _

Rationally, Sidewinder knew her curiosity had been sated. She could step away now and be fine, grab her friends and head off into the night, quest fulfilled. But as thoughts of hidden satellite treasure worming into her head, images of maps to parts unknown and technological bits she could sell for caps-a-million, she knew the rational part of her never stood a chance.

She heard trumpets behind her, heard Knoxton’s voice calling. “Sidewinder, this place is giving me the heebie-jeebies!” he hollered. “I’m gettin’ a bad, bad feeling.” 

Sidewinder didn’t turn to look at him. She stood standing over the satellite, drawn in to its incomprehensible aura and lost in the hypotheticals her own head was spinning. A wide grin cracked its way across her lips as impulse took over, the _just-fucking-do-it_ urge that even human companionship hadn’t eased out of her entirely.

“Really?” She called back, already winding her leg back. “Cuz I’m getting a  _ great  _ one.”

Sidewinder swung her boot forward to kick the satellite, and in an instant her entire world went blue.

**Author's Note:**

> Sidewinder is mine, but Knoxton was created by my dear friend [Clark Holliday.](https://imclark.tumblr.com/) Thanks for letting me borrow your cowboy, Clark.


End file.
